Churchill: execute Hitler without trial

Newly released government documents from 1942 reveal the war cabinets debates

WINSTON CHURCHILL wanted to execute Hitler in an electric chair borrowed from America if the German dictator was captured, wartime cabinet documents reveal, writes John Crossland.

Churchill believed that putting Nazi leaders on trial after the war would be a “farce” and that they should instead be treated as “outlaws”.

The former prime minister’s views are made public today after more than 60 years as another alleged war criminal, Saddam Hussein, continues to frustrate prosecutors with his antics in a courtroom in Iraq.

Churchill’s thoughts about Hitler’s fate are recorded in handwritten notes taken by Sir Norman Brook, the deputy cabinet secretary in 1942-43 and 1945-46.

The notes, released by the National Archives in Kew, London, differ from the official minutes of war cabinet meetings because they record the words of individual ministers.

In December 1942, on one of the first occasions when the cabinet discussed what to